He was a member of the Island Heights Fire Company and was a wood- working merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of.
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J 990 Old Time Barnegat Bay Decoy & Gunning Show
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Sept. 29th & 30th
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Presenting The Life and Times of by Blaine Bush
GEORGE HEINRICH Boat building is a proud tradition in the Heinrich family. Edward "Sock" Heinrich, George's grandfather built sneakboxes and garveys. George's father, Gus, built garveys and sneakboxes. Gus's three brothers, Pat, Joseph and Edward, Jr., also buill boats. George said building boats is a natural talent, as he was around them all his life. His father left him his patterns, and he started building sneakboxes in 1972. They owned a marine railway in Tuckerton, In prohibition days, the coast guard seized three rum runners' vessels and they were stored in dry dock in the Heinrich's railway until the case came to trial. George's younger brother, Gus, also builds sneakboxes. George helped his father build a couple of garveys, but he builds only sneakboxes now. Before he retired, he worked for Ocean Yachts in Weekstown and Viking building pleasure boats. He was in the Navy In World War II and for a while he worked in the bay clamming and catching live bait. Three years ago George was commissioned by the Smithsonian to build sneakboxes, but was unable to paticipate. George has built 19 sneakboxes. His sneakbox is a modified version of a Barnegat Bay Sneakbox, built for speed. The traditional Barnegat Bay Sneakboxes are feather edged. Some modern sneakboxes are flat and much faster than a feather edge. The boats are made out of Jersey Cedar. George said that orice on Crab Island during a North Easter, a metal tug be.at, the ''Little George" broke loose and strayed to Atlantic City. Wescote Towing Company brought the tug boat back through the inland water way.
EDWARD "JOHN" PETZAK John followed his dad's footsteps as a boatbuilder. He worked for Adam Price's boat yard where he built yachts and boats, 30 and 40 ff long for the war. He also worked for the Camden Shipyard where he helped build battleships. He was a union carpenter in Fort Dix where he helped to build the barracks and Walston Army Hospital. . He built garvies for 30 years and continues to.build at age 72. He has built hundreds of them over the years. Made of Jersey cegar, the garvies measure 16 and 18 ff. long. John did not work the bay, but built his boats for the baymen to use for clamming and crabbing. He also builds rowboats. John is married. He and his wife, Dorothy, have one daughter, Joan, who is married to William Kelly, a sneakbox builder.
ED HAZELTON Ed's family maintained a summer home in Surf City when he was very young. Al age seven, they ·sold this home and bought one in Bayside. The family always maintained their Victorian home at 87 Stafford Avenue (Manahawkin), which was built by Ed's grandfather in 1898. Ed clammed, crabbed and fished the bay. When Ed was seven years old he was given a rabbit dog to train. His father taught him all about upland gunning, and the care, handling and training .of hunting dogs. Ed gunned the Barnegat Bay and meadows for ducks. Paul Cramer was his professional guide and the guide for the Marshelder Gun Club on Marshelder Island. Paul taught Ed the art of meadow gunning and open bay
1990 Old Tim., Barnegat Bay Decoy & Gunning Show
Sept. 29th & 30th
The 1990 Conklin Award Winners! ELMER MOTT
gunning. He duck hunted with Joe Tom Cranmer, Joe Bounds and Rube Corlies. Ed also bird hunted for quail and pheasants and hunted the woods for rabbit and fox. Ed never guided professionally, but did guide for a friend of the family. Hurley Conklin and Robe Corlies were Ed's neighbors and for years he watched them carve decoys. A friend, Joe Tom Cranmer, made little flying decoys. These decoys used to have tin or metal wings and would hang from the ceiling. Ed carves and builds miniature sneakboxes, made to scale with oars, guns and decoys. He also carves miniature flying decoys. Ed raises black labrador retrievers. They are known from North Jersey, up into Pennsylvania and down to the Outer Banks of the Carolinas. Ed said his life has been great and full of wonderful experiences, and he'd like to thank the Lord for allowing him this wonderful opportunity. He said he's led a "Field and stream" kind of life!
JACK CERVETTO Jack was born in Clifton, N.J. and moved to Warren Grove at age 7. Back then the town was Cedar Grove. In 1910, when the new post office was built, the name was changed to Warren Grove, as there was another town in N.J. with the same name. Jack started raking moss in 1930 when he was 21 . In 1955 he started cutting cedar full time. He also cut grasses part time and sold them wholesale to florists and nurserys. Some of the items he gathered were huckleberries, brush, Bayberry, Laurel, birch foliage and brush. Winter was a good time for gathering pine cones and firewood, and cutting ice from the cranberry bog for the ice house. Spring was a lime for planting the garden and gathering moss. Jack also bought huckleberries and resold them for delivery in New York. Summer, he continued to gather moss, pick blueberries and gather grasses for decorations. Fall was a time to gather Pin Oak and White leaves to sell to a company in Hackensack, N.J. where they were dyed and sold as decorations. Also in the fall the cranberries were picked. Jack owned four acres of cranberries. Jack was a deer hunting guide in Plainfield, N.J. and a guide for archeologisls studying the Pine Barrens. He conducted tours of the Harris papermill and the old Martha Furnace. Jack never worked the bay, but did build a rowboat. He is still cutting cedar, and now makes channel markers, clam stakes, fence posts and dock pilings. Jack says he really has enjoyed living and working in the woods. Jack was a member of the Stafford Township Committee for 12 years and mayor for 4 years. He was also a member of the school board for 13 years. He has also served as caretaker for the Oak Grove Cemetery in Reeves Town. This is the oldest cemetery in the area. Jack is an active member of the Historical Society. He helped start the Stafford Township's Historical Society, and was it's vice president for 2 years.
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Elmer Mott has been sailing sneakboxes since he was 6 year old. His father taught him about the bay. He had 3 brothers and was the only one who worked in the oyster business for his dad. In 1918. Elmer, his sister, and their father stayed at Crab Island Fi~h Factory one night because his father's boat broke down on route to Little Beach Coast Guard Station (No. 120). Elmer's father, Joel Millon Motl was a member of the life saving service. This service later became known as the Coast Guard. Elmer said he will always remember that night as the smell from the fish factory was so bad! He said there were piles of garbage and dead horses which were to be processed into fertilizer. Back then it was known as McKiever's. Elmer said that at a later date the fish factory caught Menhaden fish and processed them to make fertilizer and oil to be used in making margarine. Elmer was in the oyster business with his family - J.M. Mott and Son, until the blight hit the industry. At one time, Elmer was a toll collector on the Ben Franklin Bridge. He also delivered bread for the General Baking Company (Bond). One winter, he picked pine cones to sell. Elmer went into the service in 1944 and came out in 1945. He had a tavern business on Route 9 between 1946-1951. He was Postmaster for 18 years, a substitute for rural delivery for 4% years before that. Now retired, he spends a lot of time fishing. Elmer notes that at one time, oysters sold for $2.00 a bushel; competed to the current $25.00 per bushel cost.
JOE REID Joe Reid built boats from full-size garveys to miniatures. He's given lectures and has been the subject of a documentary. Joe was the youngest of eleven children. His father was a deep water sailor who left Scotland as a boy. When he was 28 years old he was shipwrecked off Seaside Park where he met and married Joe's mother. He never went back to sea as a sailor, instead went to work in bridge construction for the railroad. After being laid off from the bridge work, Joe's father became a bayman. As a bayman he usea a sailing garvey and owned the last sailing garvey in the area. When ii was sold ii was turned into a houseboat. He also owned a cat boat with the mast in the bow. The cat boat was one half as wide as ii was long, and looked something like a pumpkin seed. Joe's father was old, impati~nt and quick to anger by the lime Joe was born. His harsh lessons taught Joe the italue of self-reliance. Joe was thirteen years old when he started clamming. He had a little garvey in which his father would tow him out in the morning so he could clam; then his father would tow . him back in - if Joe could get to him. Back then they poled the garveys, and if his father was upwind from him Joe wouldn't be able to get back to him and he would have to go ashore. Joe's father wouldn't come and get him, but told Joe ihat he had to learn to do it on his own. Joe said this made him angry at the time, but he learned very quickly. He clammed the bay in the summer when school was out; after high school he worked at Pinewald. His house burned down while he was. working at Pinewald, and he built another house himself. Joe turned down a scholarship to Rider college and drove heavy equipment at a construction site to support his parents and two of his sisters. Joe served in the army during World War II. (He said II was the only time he had a boss.) He was a supply sergeant, both In the U.S. and Europe. After the war he returned to Waretown to work the bay in summer 1and build boats in winter. I 'Joe built his first boat in 1936 with help fro'n his brother. II was a .partnership boat, and the bigges garvey around, 34 ff. long by 10 ft. wide. The only gtirveys around that were larger were the rum runners. Th s garvey had a 1918 Pierce Arrow car motor conv.erted for a boat. Other boats he built besides garveys were 'v-bottomed charter boats and row boats. He also built tunnel drive garveys. He said in Waretown you needed t~e tunnel drive garvey for scratch raking scallops. Joe said he prefers a flat bottom boat because 1they go faster, and
lay better for clamming and tonging. Joe built his boats in a workshop behind his home in Waretown. His flat bottomed garveys were made from Jersey white cedar; he referred to Jersey cedar as the best wood that grows for boats and described its virtues for boat building. "It plans well, doesn't slip off, and has a long grain that can be steamed and shaped to the forms of Jersey boats." Joe likes to say Jer~ey wood is best for Jersey boats. Joe did not use blueprints - the plans were in his head. No one ever taught Joe to build nice boats. His brother and he constructed their first garvey out of necessity in 1936, and Joe later made a seagoing boat for a man who provided the lumber. But when approached by his first paying customer Joe told him "I don't know anything about building boats''. But, he figured he could do ii. So one November he built a shop behind his house and worked alone on the boat that winter. The first one turned out nice; Joe says his instincts served him well. Joe works alone; sometimes a customer will join in to make him feel like he's part of it, but generally It's just Joe and a garvey out in the shop. Joe didn't have a teacher and he never took on an apprentice - he believes that boat building, like anything else a person does should come naturally. Joe also makes tong stales, the shortest ones were 7 fl. long - the longest ones were 20 ff. long. The 10 and 12 ff. ones were the most popular, and he made several thousand of them. The tong stales were stamped with numbers and dates on metal plates that were stamped with a machine. Joe kept records of the numbers, dates and owners, and when the police found stolen tong stales they called him for a record of the owner. Joe quit working the bay when he was 65 and then just built boats and made Cranberry scoops for orriaments. He said he has built over 100 boats. When he was 70 he started making boat models. He made a model of a Bateau (French for boat). Joe carved sneakboxes with tiny handcarved ducks, skiffs and, of course, garveys. He has always been happiest when he is around water. He likes to walk in the woods and to watch nature. Joe served on the Township Committee for 12 years and drove an ambulance for the first aid squad for 30 years. He and his wife, Gladys, were active in the PTA when their children were young, and for many years Joe was a popular scout master. (Mrs. Reid's great-uncle invenl
